When my son and his at-the-time girlfriend moved into a new apartment in August 2015, they soon got a new cat, an all-black beauty they named Java. A few months later, when Java was starting to fill out a bit in late kittenhood, it was time for her lady owner’s birthday, and I had an idea for a handmade gift for this wonderful person, online known as NervousStitch. Since she creates soft huggable plushies by hand for others to enjoy, I wanted to make something soft and sweet for her. Alas, I found out I should probably stick to the 2D hard textures, lol. 😛

So I came up with the cutsie slogan, “I like my Java BLACK!” — combining the context of the coffee cup and the lovely black kitty, Java.
I made some tentative pompons out of soft black yarn, and found a plain white coffee cup at Walmart.
Then I cut a piece of copy paper roughly the size and shape of the paintable area on the cup, picked a font and two fun kitty silhouettes, and created a template. I transferred the template to the cup using Saral transfer paper.

It took two coats plus a little more in places, but I was able to use plain black acrylic paint on the cup with no trouble at all. I sealed the cup on the outside-only with an acrylic sealer, and began to construct the little pompon kitty, which I kinda suck at. 😛

Well, like I said, I found out I am not such a natural at making cute 3D objects. Try as I might, I just could NOT get the face right. 🙁
Still, I had to just accept the fact that there is NO WRONG ART, and I presented the gift to this sweet girl, as is.
I have seen the cup in the apartment several times since then — she uses it for a container for pens and pencils and such, which I think is just awesome! As you can tell from my pics, I really enjoy my desk space and all my lovely little art supplies. So giving some of her supplies a “home” is a much better life for this gift than holding a crazy-faced pompon kitty, lol! 😀